


When Will You Learn

by MelAncrath



Category: Batman - All Media Types, Red Hood and the Outlaws (Comics), Under the Red Hood
Genre: Alternate Universe, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-18
Updated: 2016-10-18
Packaged: 2018-08-23 04:32:55
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,976
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8314078
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MelAncrath/pseuds/MelAncrath
Summary: While visiting Crime Alley on the anniversary of his parent's death, Bruce runs into a young teacher with a troubled past and a flirtatious grin.





	

Bruce studied the disgusting pavement of the alley like a modern art connoisseur and wondered which, if any, of the many abstract splashes staining its surface came from his parent's blood. This was the anniversary of their deaths and he had come to pay them respect, to mourn them, and to remind himself of his mission. Usually he came in uniform, cloaked in the mantle of his purpose, black and armored. But tonight he was in the same dark business suit he had worn to work. Logistically it made sense to stop here on the way home, the case he was working on with Gordon wouldn’t need the Batman to make an appearance at the docks, clear across town from crime ally, until the early morning hours. 

He clutched the bouquet of roses he had brought in one fist and silently vowed anew to be what his city needed and to do what needed to be done in order to keep its citizens safe. He vowed to make his parents proud, to be a worthy son, then he bent and placed the flowers on the ground.

In his sweeping haste to exit Bruce failed to notice the man crossing his path and they collided in an almost comical geyser of paper spewed from an upturned bag. 

“Shit!” Growled the man.

Had Bruce been in the batsuit he might have done something other than fall on his backside but Bruce Wayne was not a vigilante ninja so he fell on his backside. 

“You dumb fuck, what the hell?” Continued the man. 

“Sorry, I’m so sorry” Bruce said as he got up, attempting to gather some of the fallen papers.

“Yeah well, tell it to the kids whose papers you fucked up.“ the man began gathering papers as well, haphazardly putting them back in his bag. “God forbid they have something to take pride in. Holy shit, what are you doing here anyway? You look ready to be robbed dude.” The stranger’s anger seemed to have flared up and evaporated in an instant and he flashed Bruce a rueful smile.

He was handsome. No, that was an understatement. He was beautiful. Young and sharp boned with fine features. A cupid's bow mouth. A blue eyed gaze that sparkled with street light. 

“I’m sorry Mr…” Bruce trailed off and held out the papers he had gathered. 

“Todd. Jason actually. Don't call me Mr.Todd, that would be weird.” Jason took the papers. “Thanks, Mr…” The boy smiled again, echoing Bruce's own words mischievously. 

He considered lying. He considered telling the truth. He split the difference. “Call me Bruce.”

“Okay Bruce. Well, you'd better run home, this neighborhood is full of hooligans. Thanks for helping me pick these up” Jason waved the collected papers around before shoving them in his bag "after, you know, knocking them everywhere.” 

“Hooligans?” Bruce chuckled. It felt like sacrilege to do so on the anniversary of his parents death. It felt like a bird flying free from the cage of his chest. 

"Yeah there are some real ne'er do wells around here” Jason grinned and Bruce wanted to sink his teeth into the generous flesh of the boy’s lower lip.

“Maybe you could walk me back to my car?” He surprised himself with his own boldness but he was almost certain Jason was flirting with him.

“Oh yeah, no one will fuck with you when they see the english teacher watching your back. Where are you parked?” 

“Just at the end of the block.” Bruce pointed the way towards his grey Murcielago.

“Is that a lambo? In crime alley? Are you suicidal or a crime lord? Don't answer that, I don't want to know.” Jason practically skipped over to the car. 

Bruce felt himself grinning and used his remote to activate the vertically lifting doors to Jason's audible delight.

“Would it be slutty for me to say that I would totally suck you off in return for a joy ride?” 

Bruce felt his pants growing tight at the thought of having Jason in his car and wondered how exquisite he would look spread out across certain other vehicles. 

“I would have offered you more for less.” Bruce admitted, and slid into the passenger seat and tossed over his keys.

Jason looked young and dangerous behind the wheel of Bruce’s car. “You know it's too bad nobody ever told me not to accept rides from strange men in the middle of the night. Oh well, here's to a bad upbringing.” Jason said before peeling out onto the main road.

He drove with a reckless precision that both thrilled and impressed Bruce. “Have you driven sports cars before?” He asked.

“Nothing like this baby.” Jason said over the roar of the engine. “just some street racing and a misspent youth.” He explained.

Jason tore down the road and after a few skidding turns brought them to a tire screeching stop in an abandoned lot. 

“My apartment's right above here.” He said.

“Is it safe to leave my car here?” Bruce asked. A ridiculous question, he had designed the Murcielago’s security system himself. 

“Yeah, sure.” Jason said as he exited the vehicle. “Just give Pete a couple bucks on your way out, he watches the cars in the lot.” Jason waved towards a man huddled between a pair of dumpsters. The man, Pete, waved back.

“I don't have any cash.” Bruce admitted. 

“Seriously? I need to spot you? That's rich.” Jason gave him another teasing grin and lead the way into his building and up the well worn stairs.

“I'll be sure to make it worth your while.” Bruce dead panned and was pleased to hear Jason’s genuine laughter in return. His colleagues in the Justice League often missed his quiet attempts at sardonic humor and the sycophants who hung on Brucie's every inane word would laugh uproariously at the slightest hint of a joke. 

“Ok old man. Time to pay up.” Jason opened the door to his apartment. 

“I’m not that old,” Bruce said. But if he had to guess he was probably at least ten years older than Jason. 

It was dark but Bruce could see that the apartment was sparse, well organised, and clean. “Yeah it's not the Ritz,” Jason said. “but I guess you already knew you were slumming it.” The boy seemed to regret his self-deprecating words before they had even left his mouth.

Bruce searched for some way to explain that he liked the space, it was practical, that wouldn't come off as weird or disingenuous. Instead he casually walked over to Jason's small, but sturdy couch and sat down. “Come here.” He said.

Jason visibly relaxed and slid into his lap, straddling Bruce's legs. He rested his arms on Bruce’s shoulders and when their lips meet Bruce was finally able to test how delicious Jason's full lower lip felt between his teeth. It was everything he had wanted since that first smile.

Jason bucked in his lap and released a small groan in reaction to the experimental bite. Bruce took it as an invitation and grabbed onto Jason's hips, encouraging them into a dirty grinding rhythm that had them both gasping as they kissed. 

“You can be rough,” Jason’s breath was hot on his ear. Jason’s cock was hard against his stomach. Jason's hands were in his hair. Soothing and tugging in turns. This wild, funny, beautiful boy was needy and wanting on top of him. 

Bruce groaned and pushed Jason off his lap, onto the floor. “I believe you owe me something.” He said, his voice rough with lust, even to his own ears. 

“Well fuck, can't have people saying I don’t follow through,” Jason said as he unbuckled Bruce's belt and slowly slid down his zipper. “My whole reputation would be shot to hell.”

“Do all english teachers use such colorful language?”Bruce asked as he lifted his hips and helped Jason slide his boxer briefs down with his pants. 

“Just the ones that teach in the slums.” Jason said before licking Bruce from base to tip and engulfing his entire cock without hesitation. Bruce shuddered and ran his fingers through Jason's black, wavy hair. “Your big,” Jason said, then laughed at himself “Fuck that's such a cliche, right? I can't believe I just said that.” 

Bruce chuckled. “There aren't many people who dive right in like you did.”

“Then they're missing out because baby, I could suck your cock all night.”

Jason's mouth was like a furnace, warm and tight and wet around him. He was talented. The boy’s head bobbed up and down in his lap and Bruce was doing everything in his power not to use the hand he had in Jason's hair to hold him down, pull him up, buck uncontrollably. Bruce was a moment away from throwing his head head back and moaning when Jason popped off his cock making the most deliberately obscene sound possible.

“You can fuck my face,” he said, voice rough. “I want you to.” His lips were red and swollen.

Bruce stared down at the boy between his legs and swiped his thumb over Jason's abused lower lip. Then he gripped his hair in earnest and guided Jason’s head back down to his cock.

“You're so good,” Bruce found himself chanting as he pumped into Jason's hot, eager mouth, clenching his eyes shut. “So good at this, so gorgeous, wanted you the moment I saw you.” He admitted. “Your mouth,“ he panted, “taking all of me.” He felt Jason's throat constrict in what he imagined was a moan. 

“Fuck Jason, pull of.” Bruce gasped, feeling himself tipping over the edge. He had to slow down, had to get his control back. He must be nearly choking the boy but he managed to open his eyes, see that Jason has a hand down his own pants. 

The sight was captivating, wanton. Bruce tried again to warn Jason but the boy soldiered on and Bruce had to throw his head back and gasp silently as he rode wave after wave of euphoria. “Jay.” He said reverently, once he could speak again. He ran his fingers though the boy's soft hair as if to reward him. 

When Jason finally released him Bruce felt like he was floating back to Earth. 

“Fuck,” Jason’s voice was raspy, “that was amazing. Give me a hand?” He asked and climbed back up into Bruce's lap, shucking his pants along the way.

Bruce wrapped his hand around Jason and jerked the boy off while whispering all the things he wanted to do to him next time. He wanted to taste him for hours, hold him down, burry himself in Jason. Jason came moaning and shuddering in his arms.

After a few moments Jason got up and wandered into another room, returning in a pair of loose sweat pants with a pack of cigarettes. “Mind if I smoke out the window?” He asked, wandering over to open the window behind the couch and grabbed a lighter from the bookshelf, clearly he did this often.

“It's your apartment.” Bruce said, working to put himself back together. 

“We’ll have to do this again,” Jason said, holding a cigarette between his lips as he lit it. “You had some pretty amazing ideas there towards the end.”

“Anything stand out?” Bruce asked, fascinated by the swirl of smoke floating away from Jason’s mouth.

“Anything you want baby, it all sounded good to me.” Jason said breezily. 

“Then there are a lot of things I want.” Bruce got up and circled around the couch. Wrapped Jason in his arms and kissed the back of his neck. He was surprised at how responsive the boy was. Arching into the touch. 

“Sensitive.” Jason said. So Bruce dove back in, chasing the sounds and squirms until Jason shoved him off. “Enough old man, unless you want to go again?”

“I would love to have you again,” Bruce said. “But I actually have more work to do tonight.”

“I guess you don't get to afford lambos by sitting on your ass?” 

“Something like that.” Bruce said, ashamed by how many people he knew who could do just that.

“Gimme your phone, Mr. Big Business Executive.” Jason held out his hand and Bruce retrieved his phone and unlocked it before giving it to Jason. 

“Here you go,” Jason said, handed his phone back after a bit of tapping. “I put myself under ‘hot for teacher’, call me sometime yeah?”

“I will.” Bruce promised, but he was distracted, his eyes catching on what he saw as Jason's sleeve pulled back. Graceful lines swooping and curving from his inner wrist that disappeared back up into the cuff of his sleeve, a sliver of a tattoo that tugged at the edges of Bruce's recognition. “What's that?” He asked, indicating Jason’s wrist.

“More evidence of a misspent youth.” Jason answered and pushed up his sleeve to reveal the red bird shapped gang sign. “You can't really grow up here without… certain affiliations.” He trailed off.

“You grew up here?” Bruce was surprised. Despite the cursing Jason didn't have any trace of an accent, Crime Alley, Gotham, or otherwise.

“Yeah, I used to live closer to the Alley than I do now actually. I got away on a scholarship and studied abroad for a while. Came back to, I don't know, help the community or some shit. Dumb move on my part, this place is pretty hopeless.”

“I'm sure you don't mean that.” Bruce said. “You came back here with a purpose, that's admirable.” 

“Well you got me, I must have 'sucker' written across my forehead. I’ve got a bit of hope left. I kinda wanted to start a boarding school. Some place that doesn't lock kids away from their shitty families but like, helps their shitty families be less shitty because do you have any idea how hard it is to teach a kid that is hungry or who doesn’t have working water for a shower or who has to go home and take care of their siblings and can't be a student because they have to be a parent? Like fuck, there's so many problems in these kids lives that come before school it's no wonder they never get out of here. But parents are always super opposed to the government taking away their kids so it would have to be a school that like, works with the community to provide supplemental help to parents.“ 

“Like a charter school?” Bruce cut in, wondering if this was maybe something he could bring to Wayne Charities.

“No!” Jason said, “Not a charter school, because there are problems there that I don't want to tackle, but a normal public school that's also a boarding school. I know it sounds dumb but there's a model for it in the schools for the deaf and the blind. Those are public boarding schools… And I'm like totally losing you. Sorry.”

“Don't be sorry for being passionate about your community.” Bruce said, “there used to be a charity near here called Ma Gunn's, it was a boy's boarding school.”

“Yeah that was a scam dude, she was having the kids commit crimes, didn't you hear about that? It was really fucked up. Taking kids who got mixed up in the millions of opportunities for small crimes in this neighborhood and then training them for bigger stuff, as if the only thing they were fit to learn was more crime.” 

“I'm sorry, I hadn't heard about that.” Bruce was going to need to look into this, how had it slipped past him?

“I’m sorry man, you said you had more work to do and here I am talking your ear off.”

Jason gave him a couple dollars in cash for Pete and one last hot, lingering, kiss before he left. 

“You doing buisness with Hood now?” Pete asked as Bruce paid him for watching over the lot. He assumed the man meant the Red Hood, an emergent narcotics and illegal arms trafficker on this side of town. Bruce had a file on him, although he hadn't shaken down his operation, yet. Dismantling syndicated crime in Gotham was a precarious business, one false move and the whole tangled web of familial and business alliances and grudges could devolve into a small-scale World-War-I-like conflict.

“No,” Bruce said, his car in this neighborhood must be making him look like a crime lord again. “I’m just a friend of Jason's.”

“Oh got it,” said Pete, “My bad, my bad.” 

Bruce got in his car and left. The drive back to the Manor was peaceful, he felt more relaxed than he had in ages. He would have to come up with an excuse to call Jason again sometime, maybe they could talk more about his ideas for improving the neighborhood.

 

*** 

Jason couldn't believe what a dork he had just turned into in front of Bruce. _Great going Jason, meet-cute a hot guy, drive him to your shitty apartment in his fancy car, give him the blow job of his life, then explain your ideas to improve the education of disenfranchised youths! That's how you hook them for a second date._

Jason took the stairs up to the unit above his normal apartment, into the section of the building that was his safe house. He needed to get his head on straight for tonight’s, well really this morning's, meeting at the docks. His tentative operation was expanding. That would mean more control over the flow of drugs and weapons into his territory, more revenue, and more incentives for dealers and gangs to follow his rules and keep drugs and violence away from the kids in his neighborhood. But he was also probably edging into a more dangerous bracket of the Gotham crime scene, he'd have to be careful not to run afoul of the bat.

**Author's Note:**

> Possibly more to come but will likely end here.


End file.
